Some tips about drinking tea (Zhu Li) Tea is the most popular drink in the world. Tea itself is the balance of Yin and Yang. First of all, how to categorize tea? Tea can be grouped into Yin Tea and Yang Tea. Yin Tea includes white tea, dark tea and yellow tea. Yang Tea includes green tea, black tea and qing (blue) tea. So, in total there are 6 categories of tea, 3 kinds of Yin Tea and 3 kinds of Yang Tea. Secondly, how to prepare tea? The preparation of tea follows the Yin Yang balance rule. When preparing the Yin Tea, we use the ‘Yang’ way, boiling is the easiest and best way. Comparatively, when preparing the Yang Tea, we need to choose the ‘Yin’ way, and never boil any Yang Tea, otherwise it may cause potential health problems. Boiling the Yang Tea will produce anthraquinone in green tea, cyanogenic glycosides in qing tea, and acrylamide in black tea, and all these chemical components may cause cancer in long run. So, using the clay pot to prepare black tea will not only helps us to get best taste but also a cup of healthy tea. As to Qing tea, it’s easy to use French press to prepare it. Grand Yang tea, green tea needs a special treat, which is to drop the 1 boiled water into the cup with green tea leaves. By doing this way, the green tea will taste fresh and have sweet ending. Thirdly, when to drink tea? The time consideration of tea drinking actually is related with the best time of acupuncture method, which is called ‘Zi Wu Liu Zhu’ in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Based on the scientific research in China on tea and meridians, it is suggested by experts that drinking tea in the proper time slot will be beneficial to health. Below list the suggested time slots by Chinese expert. White tea: 24hours Dark tea: 9am to next day 5am (20hours) Yellow tea: 9am to 9pm (12 hours) Black tea: 7am to 5pm (10hours) Qing tea: 3am-7am & 11am-5pm (10hours) Green tea: 5am to 9am (4hours) The above time slots are the general rules for the health consideration. Since everybody’s situation is different, individuals may consider their own situation. For example, some people have the difficulty of falling asleep after drinking green tea, but some people don’t have the same problem even drinking it at evening. Fourthly, brief introduction of 2 kinds of tea One is white tea, including silver needle (BaiHao YinZhen) and Shoumei. Silver needle tea goes to meridian of lung, while Shoumei tea goes to the meridian of 2 spleen. Since they are Yin Tea, so boiling is the right way. Just to put the loose tea leaves into boiler, filled with some quantity of water, close the boiler and cover it with wet towel and boil it. Wait for several minutes and drink the tea. It could be boiled 1-2 times. The good Silver needle tea will bring you the fragrance and taste of pear, while Shoumei tea has the taste and fragrance of red Jujube dates. The other tea is qing tea. Tie Guan Yin (Iron Goddess) and Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) are both from the family of Qing Tea. Tie Guan Yin goes to the meridian of large intestine, and helps to ease the constipation problems if drinking it between 5am to 7am when the meridian of large intestine is active. When preparing it, a thin slide of ginger can be added, because qing tea is cold in TCM and may cause some stomach unease. For this purpose, only drink the Tie Guan Yin when needed. Da Hong Pao tea goes to the meridian of stomach, and reaches the pylorus. Those who often feel cold in stomach or have stomach pain may try this tea during 3pm to 5pm. A tiny piece of cinnamon stick could be added to increase the warmer feeling to stomach. Drinking tea is joy for tea lovers, and it is important to drink good tea in right way. What does good tea mean? First of all, it means good quality. Secondly, it means that individual needs to choose the right tea according to their health condition and the environment. 3 .